Results from The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence finds that, like the rest of us, CEOs are not incredibly optimistic about where the economy is right now. The confidence-o-meter came in with a score of 38, one point higher than last quarter, but a far cry from the 50 that indicates more positive than negative feelings. Only 24% of respondents (about 95 of them) saw improvement on the six-month horizon.

But fret not! Sixty percent of those nay-saying chief execs foresee profit increases in the next 12 months, with 73% of those in the respondents in the durable goods industry seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Nearly half of the respondents who see profits in their future think demand will be a big source of the rising numbers. That finding might also be a little optimism tossed in for all the investors reading the survey.